Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ain’t No Valley Low Enough

24Oct12

I really like that song, by the way. Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell do a great job with that one. And it does help a little bit for me to segue into today’s topic. It really concerns something we have started doing on a regular basis here at home and I have to give credit to Sean spending so much time in Delaware this summer for the reason for it.

It’s something really simply that Michelle’s family in Delaware would do around the dinner table each evening. Each person has to say what their personal high for the day was and what their personal low for the day was. Sean thought it was a great way to let everyone know how you’re day went. I think it’s great for a few reasons. Number one, it’s a great conversation starter around the dinner table. It gives us all something to talk about and it gives us each a chance to see a little bit into each other’s day. We can see what each person was most proud of that day or happy about. We also get to learn of anything that didn’t go so well.

It’s also a great chance to let the family in on anything that may be bothering you that day. We have had it open up some interesting conversations around the table about particular problems and what may be the best way to deal with them. I think it gives us the opportunity to not just air grievances, which it does, but to talk about maybe something that is really bothering you that day. The rest of the family should know because it helps to get it out in the open, but they also may be able to supply some type of solution that you may not have thought of before to work around the trouble.

As for the highs, it gives us a great chance to pat each other on the back. Sean can talk about what he was glad he accomplished during the day or something that he had the most fun doing. Michelle and I get to perhaps hear about things that we may not have heard about before from him, but then we also get to tell each other (and Sean) about what was best about our day. It could be something really small, like finding a five dollar bill in your jeans pocket that you didn’t know was there, or something great like the start of a new job (Yeah Michelle! She just started a new job working for Tiffany & Company). It really doesn’t matter how big the accomplishment is, as long as it was important to you.

I think the whole process also helps out each person as well. it makes you evaluate your day and forces you to find things on two levels. One, you need to find what was the best part of your day. No matter what you did during the day, there was something that was the high point of it, even if it was just getting a second cup of coffee in the morning (sometimes the day starts out that feeling like that will be the high point!). It also makes you consider what may not have gone so well. Again, there is always something we were not happy about during the day and it can be as big or as small as you want it to be. The point is it makes you consider it and then share it with everyone else. Most of the time, you feel much better about sharing it with everyone else. A lot of times, we get a pretty good laugh out of whatever was the low for the day for each other because many times it seems like something silly when you say it out loud. I guess we are pretty fortunate and blessed where we can say are low points are pretty insignificant in the big scheme of things.

So, perhaps you want to give this a try. Ask around the dinner table tonight what everyone’s high point and low point of the day was and see how it goes. Or even ask some friends, whoever you happen to be with at the end of the day or just ask yourself at the end of the day the same question. It will make you think for a few minutes and most likely smile about something.

Thank you Lyons family for teaching this to Sean. Michelle even asks Sean over the phone if she knows she won’t be home for dinner what his high and low was for the day.

I’ll let you know what my high and low for the day were tomorrow, but what is your high and low point for the day? Feel free to leave a comment here. You might surprise yourself by thinking of some things.